The Switch
by Lara1221
Summary: Lily had finally made it: Holyhead Harpies First Seeker. Falling in love with her rival had never been part of the plan. But when Snitches are switched, fate is clearly not in their hands. T for language.


**Disclaimer: **I own nothing, except my OC and the plot. The Wizarding world, the entirety of Harry potter-verse, and Miss Lily Luna potter belong to JK Rowling. The cover is something someone spectacular drew, NOT me, but I couldn't track down the artist.

** A/N 1:**

**I absolutely love how this turned out.** Not all the stories just come to me, but I had to put a lot of thought into this one and I love the result. Right now, this is a one-shot, as it _can_ stand-alone; but most likely, I'll be continuing it, (tho feedback is still very much appreciated), because I have a whole headcanon for these two that I really want to write out. It won't be a very long **multi-chapter**, but the chapters will all be **double the size of this one**, which is only 1500 words.

**If long author's notes bother you, basically all this info is completely unnecessary, so skip to the very last line XD** (starts with enjoy)

**As a one shot, this is written for:**

**Test Limits comp: **round 3: must be titled the switch; prompts- "maybe you're allergic...?", transition, broken glass**;** **Chp. 3 Acrostics comp:** T: action prompt- tricking**;** **Tien Len comp:** round 1: 4 of hearts: Lily II, Gobstones (just a word prompt), "Careful! It's wet.", quote on top**;** **thinks you can think comp:** jojo: write a next gen character**;** **winter games challenge: **freestyle skiing aerials: write a pairing of your choice**; off block comp:** breastroke medium: write a romance with word "telescope"**; wizard sweets challenge:** chocolate**;**

**as a soon-to-be multi-chap:**

**relationship bingo challenge: **random prompt (darkness) square, verb (bare) square, next-gen or founders square, forbidden relationship square (all four were used in here, but the word count will come with additional chapters)**; quotes challenge: **there is a particular quote as inspiration but I'm revealing it in the end of the story**;**

**Enjoy! **I took a bit of liberty with the properties of snitches here, so I hope you like it :D

* * *

_Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears._ - John Lennon

* * *

Tomorrow, Lily would play her first ever game as the first string Seeker for the Holyhead Harpies, after two years on the reserves. She'd been excited all summer; but now, to say she was freaking out was a complete understatement. It seemed all night, everything she did made her sick.

Making a name for herself, not as the daughter of Harry and Ginny Potter, but a brilliant flier in her own right, was all she had ever wanted. At two-days-from-twenty, Lily was the youngest Seeker to ever play on a professional team. _Ever_.

Thinking of it, none of the usual giddiness appeared, because there was no way in hell she was going to be of any use in that damn match tomorrow_ if she didn't have her goddamn Snitch!_

Lily was four when she caught her very first Snitch, and Dad had been so thrilled he finally had a Seeker she got to stay up late and eat ice cream.

Lily knew it wasn't hers in an instant, the one that warmed and fluttered at her touch. It was someone else's, too, because it didn't fly off to be claimed.

Which means someone had her Snitch, and that pool of suspects was narrowed down to every Seeker in the entire League.

_Great_.

Today had been the pre-season celebratory gala, and Lily had brought her Snitch, and someone else had brought theirs, and now her life was ruined. She still had no idea how they managed to get switched, but those were unimportant details (read: answers she was going to physically pound out from the person who had it).

She knew it was a little silly, placing so much importance in a childhood memory. But whenever she was having a bad day, this reassured her and helped her along. In this transition from reserve to real-life player, in the stuff dreams are made of, it was pretty important.

So the fact that it was missing was very, very bad. It was the only way she was going to get out of this slump in which walking or thinking or eating chocolate (it had ruined _chocolate_) made her sick.

Lily could feel her thoughts closing in on her like walls, and knew she had to get out of her flat. _Now_. If she bared her emotion at the match tomorrow, she was screwed.

She swung her _Firebolt 3000 _over her shoulder and disappeared with a crack to the Pitch, the stupid Snitch, closed and unresponsive, in her pocket. She took off, flying in circles as fast as she could, laps that made her dizzy and did nothing to ease her mind as she hoped they would but knew they wouldn't.

Lily felt like she was made of glass, and every time she thought about the match tomorrow, there was another crack, the hard sound and explosion gobstones made when they smacked into each other.

Lily continued to fly around at top speed, hair whipping around as tears streaked her face. She hated crying, and violently wiped away tears with the sleeve of her robes. Lily was thankful it was dark, so no one could see her breaking down.

It was as if every emotion she had bottled up this summer was coming out now, and losing the Snitch was the straw that broke the camel's back, as her nerves shook with the force of an earthquake.

Faintly, she heard the sound of the buzzing wings of a Snitch, no doubt the one in her pocket. She watched it fly from her robes and take off. Lily didn't even stop to consider why on Earth it was flying away, she took after it immediately. Lily extended her arm to try and-just a _little_ farther-

"_Oompf_!" Lily fisted the Snitch just as it came into contact with something hard, probably the stomach of the guy who just expressed how much he was hurt. She found herself entangled with another guy (_Merlin, who _is _that?!_), her broom knocking into his and falling from the air with him.

Suddenly, she felt a pair of strong arms catch her from her fall, and faintly, she heard the buzzing of a Snitch.

_Her_ Snitch.

_What the hell?_

* * *

Finn Rhodes had been having a pretty great day, until some asshole stole his Snitch.

It was a nice experience, meeting people outside of his fellow Magpies. He avidly avoided all of the fellow Seekers, his competition, but overall there had been great food and lots of good looking girls and it was great because he was still getting used to the whole _UK_ thing.

And after a night of drinks (he _loved_ that part of the UK thing), he squashed himself onto the sofa in his apartment and closed his eyes, completely content to sleep for the rest of the night. Finn reached into his pocket to finger his Snitch and _it wasn't his_. He (rightly) started to freak out, and immediately apparated to the Pitch to look for it.

Let's just say Finn's day got significantly _worse_ (he didn't know that was possible) when Lily Potter punched him in the gut. Then, he had to be all _chivalrous_ and catch her so she didn't plummet to her death.

Finn didn't know much about Lily Potter, except for the fact that she popped from Harry Potter's body, and she played for the Holyhead Harpies. Their biggest competition this year. _Fraternizing with the enemy_, he thought with an internal smirk.

Okay, maybe it wasn't _that_ big a deal. And it was kind of nice for about two seconds, when Finn saw her face figuring out what was going on, and he could just watch her be beautiful, and hold her there.

And right now, Finn was _positive_ he wanted to get to know Lily Potter.

"What the _fuck_?!" Lily suddenly yelled, shoving at his chest and nearly knocking them both to their deaths.

_And there goes the moment_, he thought dryly.

"Who are - my Snitch - what - why are you on my broom?!"

"This is MY broom-"

"No, it's not. Why do you have-"

"Why do YOU have mine? Maybe your _allergic_ to your's, it's why you can't seek. I think it's pretty ridiculous -"

"What do you think? You can just swoop in here with _my_ Snitch and -"

"If I hadn't _swooped_ in here, you'd be dead! You should be thanking- _OW_!"

Again, Lily punched Finn in the gut.

"You're so arrogant."

"Well you're a _bitch_ if you don't think saving your life deserves thanks. I couldn't give two shits-"

"Woah, wait, your voice. Are you American?" Lily raised a critical eyebrow, which somehow still managed to command respect despite the fact that she was cradled in his arms.

At this, Finn grinned. He had come to the UK because just like football had zero fans outside the US, there weren't any major Quidditch teams or leagues, and the Magpies had recruited him. He was an orphan; there wasn't really a question of leaving his old life behind, he just did.

"Finn Rhodes, Montrose Magpies, moved this past Summer from New Orleans Institute of Magic. They recruited me," he held out his hand for Lily to shake, and to his surprise, she began to return it.

"Lily Luna- wait, you tricked me!" Finn smirked. "I'm mad at you! Why do you have my Snitch?"

"I want mine first," he demanded.

"Careful, it's wet," she warned, reaching to pluck it out of the air, as Finn grew angry.

"What did you do to it?!" he growled, snatching it from her, and realizing with surprise it was completely normal. He looked up to see Lily with a smirk on her pretty features, bright brown eyes glinting with mischief in the Pitch lights. "What the hell?"

"It was your turn," she shrugged. Then, she narrowed her eyes. "Seriously, how did you get this?"

"Thought it was mine," Finn replied lamely, because it was the truth. He had no idea how the Snitches had been swapped. "Why does it mean so much to you, anyway?"

Finn watched a beautiful smile overtake her face as she let her Snitch fly from her, then reached back up to hold it to her chest. "Tell me about your's, first," she commanded, sitting upright and moving to get on the broom so she could face him.

"That'a hardly fair, considering I saved your life and all."

"You're never going to let me live that down?"

Finn leaned in close to Lily, eyes bright with happiness. Forget everything else; these past fifteen minutes were more than worth it. "Never," he whispered, and she sighed. The sound made butterflies erupt inside him.

"It was my first catch, I was four," she said quickly, all in one breath, "and-I-can't-play-without-it-so-deal!"

He laughed. "Okay, okay! I just asked! Mine is just lucky, it's from our trischool US quidditch match, won me the cup. By the way, I'm sure you're a great Seeker if your this age and on a professional team-"

"You don't want me to be. By the way, by those standards, you are too."

"Oh, I needed a telescope to see that, thanks for making it easy for me," he retorted sarcastically.

"No problem," she whispered. And then, they were close. Too close. It was dark and beautiful and her eyes were sparkling and _she_ was beautiful and-

To Finn's surprise, Lily kissed him first. She threw herself closer on the broom, wrapping her arms around his neck and deepening the kiss, while he wrapped his arms around her waist to keep them from falling. Her lips were warm and when he heard the noise she made at the back of her throat he groaned and pulled her closer, never wanting to hear-

"This is wrong. We've a match tomorrow," she got out, as he kissed her jaw, "You're going to regret this when I catch the Snitch."

"That won't be a problem because I'll be catching it, and isn't that a bit playground- not wanting to kiss a boy on the other team."

But Lily did pull away, and when he saw her face, his heart sank, "No, okay? Just, no. Tonight, tonight was great, and I'll never forget it. But I've worked too hard to let something like you get in the way."

"Like me?"

"The ego?"

"Have a _great_ match," Finn snapped furiously, and disappeared with a _crack_. Angry more so, because he was never going to forget that.

* * *

**please let me know if you liked it!**


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